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HDIRS Facilitates Diagnostic Image Sharing

Founded in 2007, Hospital Diagnostic Imaging Repository Services (HDIRS) is an independent, not-for-profit corporation responsible for operating two of Ontario’s diagnostic imaging repositories as part of eHealth Ontario’s diagnostic imaging program.

HDIRS enables the secure storage and retrieval of electronic images (e.g., X-rays, ultrasounds, MRIs, CT scans) and associated patient records by authorized hospitals and independent health facilities. Combined, the two repositories store tens of millions of images and serve nearly 7.5 million people in the south-central area of Ontario (i.e., approximately 55% of the population).

Through the IT services it provides, HDIRS works to accelerate knowledge creation by facilitating better collaboration between health service providers. The knowledge not only makes for a better quality of patient care, it holds promise for a more effective and sustainable healthcare system that saves and prolongs the lives of more Ontarians.

Member and Client Sites

The HDIRS-East and HDIRS-West repositories would not exist without dedicated member hospitals and independent health facility clients that generate and then share diagnostic imaging reports with other members. Lists of sites that contribute DI studies to the two repositories are updated quarterly. These lists may be useful for determining whether a particular patient exam is DIR-accessible.

Calvin H.L. Law, MD, MPH, FRCSC

Chief, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

HDIRS imaging has allowed us to now directly interface with radiologists from our referring and partner sites, allowing for a new level of interaction that will lead to ongoing improvements in the quality of imaging in communities, particularly as related to specialized and regionalized cancer care. Simply put, Ontario has spent years building centres of excellence in focused locations to improve patient care and, now, HDIRS is part of the puzzle for which these centres become focused networks of care, a critical element to the future when every Ontarian can not only receive expert care, but with much of it closer to home.